Friday, February 24, 2017

This evening for "music night" at The Wild Reed I share something very special: the recent collaboration of legendary singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq. Both women are past Polaris Music Prize winners, and the two teamed up to create the new recording “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)” as part of the second-ever Polaris Collaboration Session. The song debuted online this past Wednesday, February 22 (two days after Buffy's 76th birthday).

Sainte-Marie and Tagaq, who won the Polaris in 2015 and 2014, respectively, collaborated on the Sainte-Marie-written song “You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind),” presented by Stingray Music and generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. . . . The song was recorded in the fall of 2016 at Orange Lounge in Toronto with producer Jon Levine (Nelly Furtado, K’naan, Drake), and mixed by Howie Beck (Feist, Hannah Georgas, Jason Collett). It was inspired by champion dogsled racer George Attla, who competed in the first-ever Iditarod dog sled race in 1973 and was the subject of the 1979 film, Spirit of the Wind.

Tagaq and Sainte-Marie hope the message of “You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)” can affect listeners in a number of inspiring ways.

“It reminded me of growing up in Nunavut,” explains Tagaq. “Sometimes when things get difficult you have to pick yourself up, you can’t let things bring you down. You could take it to be an anti-suicide message. I really appreciate its powerful lyrics.”

Sainte-Marie wouldn’t be opposed to political candidates using it as a theme song.

“There are very important things going on in Indian country right now. This is a song I’d like to hand to any of our Aboriginal candidates who really are in a position, finally, to make a big difference,” said Sainte-Marie.

Inspiring words from both women, to be sure. . . . And I have to say that I love the energy and message of "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)," and how, for me at least, this image of the "spirit of the wind" is all about the Divine Presence within and beyond us. . . . Oh, and I also love Buffy's spirited shout-out to Standing Rock towards the end of the recording!

I hope all who are reading this will enjoy and be inspired by this song too! . . .

. . . Down in a hole, you feel like
two different people in your soul.
You feel like a loser
until you see that as you bend
you learn to be
your own best friend.

And you learn how
and you learn when
to take a chance
on the spirit of the wind.

Hey, we've been down;
we've been so broken, been so low
that we've kissed the ground.
But you can see yourself a winner
beyond the money and the greed,
beyond the prizes of pure untested need.

And to be a champion is more
than luck and speed.
It's power and freedom
in the spirit of the wind.

Following is an episode of the Polaris Podcast featuring an interview with Buffy and Tanya discussing their collaboration.

Left: Police make arrests as they move through the Oceti Sakowin camp – February 23, 2017. (Photo: Angus Mordant/NPR)

Above right: Police officers and their armored vehicle approach the Last Child Camp at Standing Rock in North Dakota on February 1, 2017. In sharing this image on Facebook, Evan Greer wrote: "U.S. history condensed into a single photo," while Marshall Deerfield opines, "The Western world has never had a clearer view of itself and its war machine."(Photo: Ryan Vizzions)

Postscript: The following photographs were taken February 23, 2017 at Standing Rock's Oceti Sakowin camp by Reuters photographer Terray Sylvester. (For more images, click here.)

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

One of those strange journalistic codes . . . demands that no newspaper describe Milo Yiannopoulos [right] as anything other than a "provocateur". He's not. He's not a provocateur, or a satirist, or a trickster, or a troll; he's an idiot. Milo has no sense for irony whatsoever; he's far too vain for the long, patient game of saying anything other than what he thinks. Look at his old columns for the Catholic Herald – since deleted, but nothing on the internet is ever really gone forever – and it's all drearily familiar: protesters are bad, the left are bullies, the media is biased, everyone's mean to me; all delivered without a moment of deftness or play, and all in the grim throttled tones of any mouldering and moribund conservative hack.

. . . Milo is fading fast: he's with us now, but not for long. And soon he can go back to being what he always was: another bloviating dunce obsessed with his own importance, one more whiny voice in the vast chorus of the dull.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Jim Morin's "Devils' Bargain" (above), depicts House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump making a deal as they shake hands. It's a powerful political cartoon, wouldn't you say?

I'll come back to it in a moment, but first I want to explore the events and actions that inspire it by sharing the words of a writer I greatly respect and trust – my friend and fellow blogger William D. Lindsey.

William (pictured at right) recently shared via Facebook an erudite response to a February 15 Salonarticle by Heather Digby Parton. In this piece, Parton examines the "unhappy choice" facing congressional Republicans as they and the rest of the country watch as the Trump White House "spirals into crisis."

Writes William:

As Heather Digby Parton rightly suggests, with GOP leaders, it will be their agenda – not their country [that they'll choose]. She writes, "Allowing a president to blow up the world is a small price to pay in exchange for tax cuts for the wealthy, am I right?"

With Republicans at present (and for some years now) it is all about – and only about – accountability to their corporate masters, to the 1% and their agenda of destroying government as a check on their rapacity, rolling back taxes, and robbing the rest of society to put more wealth into their already chock-full pockets.

GOP leaders showed us just how much they cared about the country through their relentless, barbaric attacks on the Obama administration for two terms, and their refusal to govern – to be ethically aware adults.

As they engaged in those attacks, they maliciously, deliberately spread lies among the stupidest and meanest segment of the population, people who have no inkling of how they are being used by the 1% as they vote repeatedly against their own economic self-interest in order to score points against the gays, women, immigrants, African Americans, liberals, intellectuals, etc. This deliberate, malicious creation of a culture of outrageous lies disguised as news has brought our democracy into crisis, and it's not apparent it can recover, now that those stupidest and meanest among us have, at the behest of the 1% put the ultimate con-artist-cum-traitor in the White House.

In exploring the dilemma that congressional Republicans are facing, Parton highlights a recent New York Timespiece by Jonathan Martin and Matt Flegenheimer in which they observe the following.

[T]he Republican-controlled House and Senate seem to have made a collective decision: They will accommodate – not confront – [Trump's] conduct as long as he signs their long-stalled conservative proposals on taxes, regulations and health care into law.

“There’s a widely held view among our members that, yes, he’s going to say things on a daily basis that we’re not going to like,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Senate Republican, “but that the broad legislative agenda and goals that we have — if we can stay focused on those and try and get that stuff enacted — those would be big wins.”

Which of course bring us back to this post's opening image – "Devils' Bargain" by political cartoonist Jim Morin, an image that serves as a profoundly troubling and tragic indictment of the state of political affairs in the United States in 2017.

And yet . . .

And yet I remain committed and hopeful.

I remain committed to carrying it on; "it" being the passionate embodiment of hope, awareness and love in a world dominated by political and economic systems that far too often heap contempt on such qualities and their embodiment by individuals and communities.

Another source of hope and inspiration for me is Sikh activist and filmmaker Valarie Kaur (right) who believes that the troubling and tragic times we're living through comprise a moment to seize, an opportunity for transformation.

“What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead but a country that is waiting to be born?” Kaur asks.

Writer Miles Kampf-Lassin believes that one month into Donald Trump’s presidency, we may well be witnessing the type of transformation envisioned by Kaur. It's a transformation writes Kampf-Lassin, that is "being made in the streets and among the grassroots of America."

The nationwide Women’s March on January 21 was likely the largest demonstration in U.S. history. Since, major cities have been overtaken by daily protests against Trump and the GOP’s agenda.

More mass marches are planned for the coming months, including a March for Science on April 22, the People’s Climate March on April 29 and an Immigrants’ March on May 6. Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, have had their phone lines, emails, offices and town hall meetings flooded by incensed constituents.

Dozens of grassroots political groups have formed, including the fast-growing Indivisible, focused on citizen lobbying of lawmakers, and Swing Left, founded to support progressive candidates running in 2018. Existing left organizations have seen their memberships swell, perhaps most remarkably the Democratic Socialists of America.

Divestment campaigns such as those targeting investors in the Dakota Access Pipeline are gaining steam, using direct economic pressure to influence policy.

Despite the lack of singular leadership, a protest movement has rapidly developed, one unseen in recent history. It’s showing no signs of slowing – and scoring real victories.

. . . [Yet] so far this new protest movement has been primarily oppositional, responding to attacks posed by the new government. Any program to win power must also set out a bold vision of a different kind of society, one focused on the needs of working people that serves as a true alternative to the type of racist and corporate-dominated agenda currently being carried out.

If we are to see a “new birth” of this country, it will require not just a common enemy, but common principles and objectives that will advance equality and freedom, guiding the current upsurge of activism from marching in the streets towards implementing progressive policy that cuts to the heart of a fundamentally unequal economic and political system.

Yet, it is becoming clear that the shock of seeing Trump elected president – and shake the foundations of our democracy – has quickly moved beyond outrage into mass, coordinated protest.

Rather than simply asking, “can he do that?” Americans are more and more starting to ask themselves, “can we do that?” This is the form of inventive thinking, awakened by resistance to a demagogic leader, that can begin to chart a new direction. The next steps are up to us.

In the lead-up to the march, the Anti-War Committee shared the following via social media.

Join us to demand the end of the Trump administration's racist Muslim ban, to say 'No Wall on the US-Mexico Border,' to demand that Minneapolis and St. Paul remain 'Sanctuary Cities,' and to say 'No New U.S. Wars.' We will rally in Powderhorn Park and then march on Lake Street to send a loud message of solidarity to our immigrant sisters and brothers. We particularly want to show our support to all the families whom are affected by Trump's Muslim ban and by the increasing militarization at the US-Mexico border. . . . No Hate and No Fear! Refugees are Welcome Here!

Following is the report from Minnesota Public Radio News on this afternoon's rally and march.

Supporters of refugees and immigrants marched through Minneapolis this afternoon to protest proposals of President Trump.

The march attracted around 1,000 people, according to Minneapolis Police. It started at Powderhorn Park, and traveled along Lake Street between Chicago Avenue and Bloomington Avenue – closing the street at times, before returning to the park.

Protesters carried signs that read "Resist" and "No More Deportations," and chanted as they marched.

They protested Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico and his proposed temporary ban of refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The protest went from 1 p.m. to around 3:30. Minneapolis police report they made no arrests or responded to any calls related to the protest.

Following is Miguel Otárola's Star Tribune news story on today's rally and march.

More than 2,000 people marched from Powderhorn Park along E. Lake Street in Minneapolis and back again Saturday afternoon to show support for immigrants and refugees in the face of President Donald Trump’s views and proposals.

The march, organized by the Anti-War Committee and the No More Deportations Campaign, featured speeches, chants and signs in both English and Spanish. A number of causes were represented, but the most prominent was support for refugees and immigrants.

“We’re trying to keep the pressure up,” said Misty Rowan with the Anti-War Committee. “We’re not going to let this go. We’re not going to forget.”

The group of marchers stretched at least two blocks, diverting traffic as they moved onto Lake Street, where they walked past several businesses run by immigrants. The crowd, which was peaceful and enjoying the sunny day, included many families and children, who were asked to march in front.

Sabry Wazwaz, with the Anti-War Committee, led the chants from the bed of a pickup truck, including, “This is what democracy looks like!” and “Together we stand, together we fall. Together we say, ‘No ban, no wall!’”

The march moved west on Lake Street and turned around after reaching the Midtown Global Market near Chicago Avenue. Minneapolis police helped guide the marchers and redirect traffic.

Community members, passers-by and people working in the Lake Street businesses took video of the march on their smartphones, and many chanted along in support.

Heather Cornwell, who lives in southwest Minneapolis, took her 12-year-old daughter, Wendy, to see the marchers along Lake Street. Cornwell adopted Wendy from Colombia last year, and said she wanted her to see the power of unity.

“It’s exciting to see all the voices coming together,” Cornwell said. “I want her to grow up in a country that is supportive of an immigrant culture.”

The Anti-War Committee helped organize a march on Jan. 31 that drew at least 5,000 people to downtown Minneapolis. The large numbers who came out then led the group to organize Saturday’s march, Rowan said.

“It doesn’t end with protests,” she said. “We want people to help with support work for these families that are being attacked right now.”

Last Saturday, more than 2,000 people marched from downtown Minneapolis to the University of Minnesota in another show of support for immigrants and refugees. Similar demonstrations have taken place across the country since Trump’s inauguration.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

I honor my integrity and the integrity of others. I am guided by love. I allow myself to feel the love that is guiding others. Like the earth, I enjoy seasons of renewal. I forgive shortcomings and failures, arrogance and shortsightedness. I allow such human foibles to be dissolved in the graceful flow of life ongoing. Life is a river which flows through me, washing me clean of judgment, cleansing me with the waters of compassion. I allow life to be both tender and clear. I choose the longer view of wisdom over the more short-lived satisfaction of being "right."

After the Senate majority leader interrupted Warren’s recitation of Coretta Scott King’s 1986 letter against Jeff Sessions, he defended himself in terms that promptly flooded social media.

“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech," McConnell said. "She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

And so #ShePersisted was born.

. . . Twitter user @CourtneyPrivett incorporated the phrase into a drawing that went viral. She drew a woman facing dozens of all-too-common insults, with the words “Nevertheless, she persisted,” written and underlined at the bottom.

The image garnered more than 1,000 retweets and more than 7,000 likes on Instagram. Twitter users responded to the image with feelings of understanding, frustration and gratitude. . . . After popular demand, Privett drew a male version of the image targeting toxic masculinity.

And in sharing this "male version" of her drawing on Facebook, Courtney Privett (right) said the following.

I was asked to do a male version. My hands are shaking so my lines aren't great. Like in my #ShePersisted drawing, the comments here are said by both men and women, and many of them begin in early childhood. Also like the first one, I ran out of space.

This is for my son, who loves to dance and should never be shamed for that.

Because of my appreciation for dance, I find the following excerpt from Papanikolaou's article of particular interest. Perhaps you will too!

I try to lead students away from overbearing überstructures designed to force people to think a certain way or think they are never doing enough. Instead, I lead them toward an understanding of being religious that has to do with formation of the person to be in a certain way – a being that is in communion with the divine. Being religious is less about agreeing to certain propositions or following certain rules, and more about transforming one’s mode of being in the world. Being religious is very much like being an artist.

Because Fordham has a special BFA program with the Alvin Ailey School, I use dance as an analogy. I ask the students whether someone who has studied dance but has never danced “knows” dance as well as someone who has trained as a dancer. They immediately and instinctively answer that the trained dancer knows more about dance. I then try to lead them to articulate what this knowing entails, if it’s not simply reading books about dance and attending performances. A dancer must submit to a regimen of training that usually begins with basic practices that must be mastered to the point where they are performed without thinking. This training is done under the tutelage of a teacher, who has been through the training. The student of dance then progresses to more advanced practices, still under the guidance of a teacher, struggling to integrate techniques of dance into their very being as a dancer.

All this training is usually done within an institutional setting, where there are clear hierarchies, boards of directors, politics, a community of dancers that don’t all like one another, dancers who are more concerned with their ego than simply dance for the sake of dance. And yet, in the midst of all this ugliness, there is a tradition of formation in dance that is passed on from generation to generation. It is time-tested, and through it one may emerge as a dancer, but it could not have been formed without institutionalization. It’s only by submitting to this tradition that one can lead oneself to a kind of performance where a dancer is not aware of the audience, is not dancing to the audience, but is dancing simply for the sake of dance. This is the kind of performance where the dancer doesn’t control the choreography; rather, the choreography and all that it attempts to express has seized the dancer. Those capable of this kind of performance are usually the saints of the tradition of dance. They don’t attempt to reify the past, but they add to the tradition while always remaining within it. This kind of performance could never be possible without submitting to the training, and it’s only through the practices of the tradition that one can hope to be this kind of dancer.

Being religious, then, is about being in a way that embodies the divine presence, and working toward being available to the divine presence in and through religious practices and tradition. Being religious is not a set of rules one must follow or a bunch of propositions to which one must assent; it is first and foremost an art form, an expression of beauty that is also truth and goodness. The rules and propositions of the tradition – and every tradition has its rules and propositions – aim at the production of the person as a work of art.

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

What makes Milo Yiannopoulos[pictured at left] so vexing to the left and successful among young people on the right is the way he manages to utilize his “deviant” sexuality as a political asset rather than a liability. Milo’s rhetorical and aesthetic strategies are manifold: he adopts the argot of science and history in support of his claims about the supremacy of Western culture, but simultaneously asserts that we live in a “post-fact world.” He mocks the offended sensibilities of leftists who protest his campus appearances, yet uses the language of assault to characterize himself as an embattled champion. He effortlessly pivots from ridiculing his targets (fat people, Muslims, feminists) to asserting that his insults are in fact efforts to save these people from their brainwashing. If all else fails, he whips out a cock joke.

While there are parallels to be found between Milo and historical and contemporary fascist figures interested in homoeroticism, he remains singular: an ultra right-wing pundit with a high-femme persona who is nonetheless largely embraced by a political bloc synonymous with contempt for homosexuals and feminine men. Understanding the sources of his appeal is crucial to developing sophisticated insight into the way alt-right media – now the sanctioned news of the White House – uses spectacle and irony to persuade, bewitch, disrupt, and overwhelm the public.

. . . The problems of Milo’s paradoxical position – sex symbol to a political movement that alternately embraces and repudiates him – remains unresolved, and that is the way he likes it. Milo denies his membership within the alt-right, but is perhaps the movement’s most visible proponent. To maintain his celebrity, Milo has to stay outrageous, desirable, and singular. Though he sells a shirt on his web store with the line “Milo in Training,” for his magic to work there can be nobody else like him on the alt-right. Adopting an identity coherent with his political ideologies would spell the end of his career.

I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, "Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective." As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words "progressive," "gay," and "Catholic" seek to describe.

Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.

On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.

Readers write . . .

"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William

"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB

"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip

"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal

"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George

"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin

"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick

"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter

"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael